Tinctoris’s Minimum Opus ROB C. WEGMAN (Princeton University) he story has long been known and often been told: as a student at the TUniversity at Orléans, Johannes Tinctoris made a fool of himself.1 Proud of his accomplishments, and pleased especially with his literary prowess, he allowed his vanity to slip through and leave a permanent record, in full view of all posterity, in a document that would survive the centuries. That document, which is still kept at Orléans today, is precious for several reasons – not the least of which is that it is the only surviving text written in the theorist’s own hand. Yet what makes it truly invaluable is what he reveals about himself, intentionally and, perhaps, unintentionally. The text has been transcribed and edited by several modern scholars, and the facts of the case are well known.2 Yet the story they tell remains a footnote to the larger story of Tinctoris’s life. My aim in the pages that follow is to take another close look at the text, and to give it more of the interpretive scrutiny that we are accustomed to give to other documents from this period. Like so many medieval texts, the Orléans document raises questions that may not be obvious in a face-value reading. Indeed, upon sustained scrutiny we may soon find ourselves wondering what, exactly, is the story it tells, how much of a fool Tinctoris really made of himself, and who, ultimately, has the last laugh. Before delving into those questions, however, let us begin by recapitulating the story, and providing some of the context necessary to analyze it. The year is 1463, and Johannes Tinctoris is a musician in his late twenties. Although his celebrity as the most authoritative music theorist of his time is still a decade in the future, he can already boast an impressive start to his career. He is an ordained priest, a master in the liberal arts, and a successful professional musician. 1 Ronald Woodley, “Iohannes Tinctoris: A Review of the Documentary Biographical Evidence”, JAMS, 34 (1981), p. 217-248, at 225-229 and 243; Id., “Renaissance Music Theory as Literature: On Reading the Proportionale Musices of Iohannes Tinctoris”, Renaissance Studies, 1 (1987), p. 209-220, at 211-212; Leofranc Holford-Strevens, “Humanism and the Language of Music Treatises”, Renaissance Studies, 15 (2001), p. 415-449, at 424-426; Robert H. F. Carver, The Protean Ass: The Metamorphoses of Apuleius from Antiquity to the Renaissance (Oxford, 2007), p. 249, n. 53; Jeffrey Samuel Palenik, “The Early Career of Johannes Tinctoris: An Examination of the Music Theorist’s Northern Education and Development” (Ph.D. diss., Duke University, 2008), p. 8-29; Rob C. Wegman, “Tinctoris’s Magnum Opus”, ‘Uno gentile et subtile ingenio’: Studies in Renaissance Music in Honour of Bonnie J. Blackburn, ed. Gioia Filocamo and Mary Jennifer Bloxam (Turnhout, 2009), p. 771-782, at 779-780. 2 Printed in Hilde De Ridder-Symoens et al., eds., Les Livres des procurateurs de la nation germanique de l’ancienne Université d’Orléans, 1444-1602, 3 vols. (Leiden, 1971), 1, p. 29-30, see also 2, p. 69-70; R. Woodley, “Iohannes Tinctoris”, p. 243; L. Holford-Strevens, “Humanism and the Language”, p. 425. 6 n REVUE BELGE DE MUSICOLOGIE / BELGISCH TIJDSCHRIFT VOOR MUZIEKWETENSCHAP Only a few years previously he had accepted the post of choirmaster at the Cathedral of Ste Croix in Orléans.3 With that position he had secured the safety and stability of a life within the patronage of a major institution, a steady income with good prospects of a decently beneficed career, a house to live in, and the daily opportunity to fine- tune a polyphonic chapel under his own direction. Yet his ambitions reached further than that. In 1462 Tinctoris had taken the next step: in the autumn of that year he enrolled as a student of law at the University of Orléans. This put him on an academic track that could eventually earn him the title of Doctor of Canon and Civil Law. With a law degree Tinctoris would be able to rise to positions of responsibility in civic, courtly, and ecclesiastical administrations. That his legal career meant a lot to him is clear from later evidence. In his treatises on music, Tinctoris would never be shy about his credentials as a scholar of law. Nor did he ever abandon the hope, not even in old age, of being one day awarded the doctoral degree that had apparently eluded him during his years at Orléans.4 In 1463 those aspirations were still some way from being realized any time soon. Yet in this year Tinctoris did write a document that offers a glimpse into his ambition to succeed and excel. This short but remarkable text survives in his own handwriting, and at first sight looks like a somewhat overwrought exercise in self-praise. Tinctoris, the fresh law student, appears eager to project himself as a man of distinction, a figure who stands out from among his peers, and who may be destined for great things. To this end he deploys a suitably exalted stylistic register, one that looks comically out of place in the immediate documentary context of a matriculation register. Tinctoris would succeed in making an impression on people who came across his text after he had left Orléans. But judging from their reactions, which survive as annotations scribbled in the margin, these later readers were struck less by what was admirable about him (at least in his eyes) than by the extravagant immodesty of his self- representation. Although his later career would vindicate the high opinion Tinctoris had of himself – he would soon be appointed as the chief musician at the royal court of Naples – this one document at Orléans continued to make him the laughing stock of other students at the university. In our own time it has attracted commentary from a number of scholars, and has been edited more than once.5 However, since the text is not free of ambiguity, and may be open to different readings, I propose to take another look at it here, and explore what may or may not have been the intentions of its author. The document that concerns us here survives in a hefty tome that is kept today in the Archives départementales du Loiret at Orléans, under the call number D. 213 (Fig. 1). It is the Liber procuratorum, the matriculation register of the so-called German nation, that is, the corporate body of those students at Orléans who came from the territories of the Holy Roman Empire. Since Tinctoris was born in Braine-l’Alleud, a small town in the imperial county of Brabant, he was eligible for membership in 3 Marlène Britta, “Contribution à l’étude des années passées par Johannes Tinctoris à Orléans: 1458–1465”, JAF (forthcoming). 4 Richard Sherr, “A Biographical Miscellany: Josquin, Tinctoris, Obrecht, Brumel”, in Musicologia Humana: Studies in Honor of Warren and Ursula Kirkendale, ed. Siegfried Gmeinwieser, David Hiley, and Jorg Riedlbauer (Florence, 1994), p. 65-73. 5 See above, n. 1 and 2. Tinctoris’s Minimum Opus n 7 Fig. 1. Statement by Johannes Tinctoris as he assumes office as Procurator of the German nation at the University of Orléans, 1 April 1463. Orléans, Archives départementales du Loiret, D 213, Liber procuratorum, vol. 1, fol. 62r. the German nation.6 This is how we first encounter him in the register, on folio 61v, when he is sworn in as a member by the nation’s procurator Petrus de Duvelandia. His matriculation, some time between July and October 1462, is recorded as follows:7 Tempore mee procurationis iuravit In the time of my procuratorship, the venerabilis dominus et magister Johannes venerable lord and magister Johannes Tinctoris de Brania Allodij, Cameracensis Tinctoris of Braine-l’Alleud in the diocese dyocesis, et succentor ecclesie Sancte of Cambrai, succentor of the church of Ste Crucis, et fecit iuramenta solito more et Croix, swore and took the oaths after the pecuniam procuratori et bedello nacionis usual custom, and paid the procurator and in promptu soluit; sed nacioni francum the beadle in ready money; but he promised in proxima electione solvere promisit, to pay the nation’s franc at the next election, quem francum nacio et supposita eiusdem which franc the nation and its members, solempniter congregata sibi ob specialem in a solemn assembly, waived as a special favorem remiserunt. favor to him. It is typical of documents like these that they are careful to record the titles and distinctions of the individuals. For example, Tinctoris is styled “the venerable lord”, which reflects his dignity as an ordained priest. He is also styled “magister”, which 6 Cf. most recently Ronald Woodley, “Tinctoris’s Family Origins: Some New Clues”, JAF, 5 (2013), p. 69-94. 7 Livres des procurateurs, 1, p. 28. 8 n REVUE BELGE DE MUSICOLOGIE / BELGISCH TIJDSCHRIFT VOOR MUZIEKWETENSCHAP means that he has successfully completed the liberal arts curriculum, possibly at another university. Finally, he is called “succentor” at the prestigious Cathedral of Ste Croix, which confirms that he is more than a mere singer. Tinctoris is a musician qualified to take on professional responsibilities at a major choral establishment. One further detail which Petrus de Duvelandia is careful to add is Tinctoris’s place of birth, and the diocese in which he had been ordained. It is his birth in Braine-l’Alleud, in the diocese of Cambrai, that confirms his eligibility to join the German nation. The task of the procurator himself, as we can tell from the document, was to admit new students to the nation, to record their matriculation in the register, and to collect the membership fees.8 The procuratorship was a position that rotated quickly, typically about three or four times a year.